Research says these 10 personality traits are important for a “healthy personality”

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers have claimed to have discovered the 10 personality traits key for mental being.

How did they find the answer?

Researchers asked 137 experts in psychology to describe their idea of a psychologically healthy person using the 30 personality facets in the NEO Psychological Inventory, Revised.

Across all groups, the same were identified.

So, in this article, we’re going to go through each trait identified by the research study and we’ll talk about ways we can improve it in ourselves.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to have ALL these personality traits to have a healthy life.

According to the Dr. Kaufman, ““the key determination [for psychological health] is the extent to which low scores on this profile block you from reaching your personal goals.”

1) Openness to Feelings

This involves how attentive you are to inner feelings.

Emotional avoidance has been linked to a range of mental health issues, like depression and anxiety.

I don’t blame anyone for ignoring negative feelings. I do it. Most of us do. After all, some feelings can be painful and difficult to deal with.

But when we reject our feelings, we reject a part of ourselves.

Now I’m not saying we should wallow in our negative emotions

Instead, it’s more fruitful to acknowledge and accept them.

This means letting your emotions be without negatively judging them or trying to change them.

It’s understanding that you don’t need to change your emotions. They won’t do damage to you.

In fact, research shows that learning to accept emotions leads to stable emotional resilience.

It also leads to a better understanding of yourself and why your emotions are responding in certain ways.

This doesn’t mean self-imposed suffering. It just means that you acknowledge what you’re feeling.

Once you’ve done that, you can move on and focus on your actions.

Buddhist philosophy is big on accepting and letting go of negative emotions, and they’ve developed several techniques to do so over the years.

To learn more about it, check out our eBook on How to Use Buddhist Philosophy for a Mindful, Happy and Peaceful Life. You can see it here.

2) Straightforwardness (and being “frank, sincere, and ingenuous”)

People often get the idea of straightforwardness and assertiveness wrong. It doesn’t mean you’re aggressive, pushy or mean. It means being honest, and standing up for yourself while respecting others.

There’s no point dancing around issues. You’ll probably feel more cluttered yourself.

So, how can you learn to be more straightforward and honest with yourself?

There’s actually a formula for constructing an assertiveness statement, according to Psychology Today. It has 3 parts:

1. What you want them to change:

When you don’t call on me during a meeting

2. How this behavior affects you:

I never get a chance to speak

3. How you feel as a result:

I feel marginalized

So, putting it all together: “When you don’t call on me during a meeting, I never get a chance to speak, and I feel marginalized.”

3) Competence

Feeling that you’re good at something engenders feelings of optimism and hope.

When you feel that you are a capable person, able to achieve things and do things, you naturally become more confident and resilient.

Think of JK Rowling typing away day after day. She worked alone and needed to know that
she was good at what she was doing.

By practicing over and over, her writing kept getting better and better. She kept on gaining confidence, and that confidence helped her push through.

Being good at something only comes with practice, and being good at something improves resilience through confidence.

Try this: Pick a skill that you have, something that’s important to you. Perhaps something
that’s linked to one of your goals. Set aside time every week to do it, no matter how busy you are.

If you’re looking to learn something new, and you want to learn faster, check out learning expert Jim Kwik’s 10 powerful hacks to unlock your superbrain so you can learn faster, retain more and forget less. It’s a free masterclass and it will transform the way you think, learn and live. Check it out here.

4) Warmth (being affectionate and friendly)

Mother Teresa once said, “We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love.”

Kindness helps our lives in more ways than one.

Research shows that when we do things for others, we do get repaid. Not just through reciprocation, but as a result of the psychological benefits acts of benevolence produce in the giver.

Emily Fletcher is one of the world’s leading experts in meditation. She’s been invited to teach at Google, Harvard Business School, Summit Series, Viacom, A-Fest & The Omega Center.

After years of studying ancient practices in India and teaching thousands of high performers, Emily created Ziva Meditation, a mental technique that combines the stress-relieving benefits of meditation with the mental clarity of mindfulness.

She takes the woo-woo out of meditation and makes it attractive and easy to implement. Check it out here.

8) Low depression

Here’s a great list of things to do from Help Guide to improve your mood:

1) Reach out to others and stay connected.
2) Do things that make you feel good.
3) Get moving and exercise
4) Eat a healthy diet
5) Get a daily dose of sunlight
6) Challenge your negative thinking

9) Low vulnerability to stress

When you’re stressed, the last thing that you’d think would work would be exercise. After all, exercise is a form of physical stress.

However, research suggests that physical stress can relieve mental stress.

Harvard Health says that aerobic exercise is key for your head, just as it is for your heart:

“Regular aerobic exercise will bring remarkable changes to your body, your metabolism, your heart, and your spirits. It has a unique capacity to exhilarate and relax, to provide stimulation and calm, to counter depression and dissipate stress. It’s a common experience among endurance athletes and has been verified in clinical trials that have successfully used exercise to treat anxiety disorders and clinical depression. If athletes and patients can derive psychological benefits from exercise, so can you.”

According to Harvard Health, exercise works because it reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.

It also stimulates the production of endorphins, which are natural painkillers and mood elevators.

10) Low impulsivity (being able to control cravings and urges)

The great news about this is that research has found that the brain can be trained to be less impulsive.

An effective way is to determine how you want to prioritze your time. Then, before acting impulsively, make sure your action reflects the values you’ve written down for yourself.

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In 2018, the third year of Hack Spirit, I poured thousands of hours and considerable resources into creating these articles. It's a labor of love and remains free thanks to your patronage. If you found any value in these articles, please consider supporting what I do with a donation. Your support is what helps me to continue creating more Hack Spirit articles. To make a donation, select the amount and click the "donate" button below.

I’m Lachlan Brown, the founder and editor of Hack Spirit. I love writing practical articles that help others live a more mindful and better life. I have a graduate degree in Psychology and I’ve spent the last 6 years reading and studying all I can about human psychology and practical ways to hack our mindsets. If you to want to get in touch with me, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.